BRIDGEPORT -- That the season ended one game short of the Frozen Four is pain enough for the Yale hockey team. That it ended in the manner it did only stung that much deeper.

Minnesota-Duluth scored three power-play goals in the first two periods while Yale, just seconds after getting itself back into the game on Brian O'Neill's goal, lost O'Neill, arguably the team's best player, to a controversial game disqualification after he was whistled for a 5-minute major for contact to the head on an open-ice hit.

It didn't take long for UMD to put the game away, although the Elis made it interesting in the third period of a 5-3 UMD victory Saturday at Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard.

Yale (28-7-1), despite its best team in 116 seasons of hockey at the school, was eliminated one game shy of the Frozen Four for the second consecutive season. Instead, UMD (24-10-6) wins the NCAA East Regional and a place in college hockey's showcase event, which takes place in St. Paul, Minn., starting April 7. Its last Frozen Four appearance was in 2004.

"We're obviously disappointed," senior forward Denny Kearney said. "It's not the way we pictured our season ending. But they played a good game and buried them when they needed."

The call on O'Neill, whom a night earlier was called "the heart and soul of this team" by Yale coach Keith Allain, was as controversial as it was costly. O'Neill leveled UMD's Jake Hendrickson with an open ice hit in the neutral zone. Referees ruled there was contact to the head by O'Neill. Yet the hit appeared to be clean on video replays. O'Neill also suffered a deep gash above his right eye, which required several postgame stitches.

Allain wouldn't directly comment on the call, but his feelings were obvious.

"Look at the tape and tell me what you think," Allain said. Asked what the referee told him immediately after the call, Allain responded, "He said it was clearly contact to the head."

O'Neill, a junior who has led Yale in scoring the past two seasons, was not available for comment after the game.

Yale had already dug itself into a deep hole, allowing a short-handed, even-strength and power-play goal over the first 30 minutes as UMD took a 3-0 lead.

But O'Neill's power-play goal, a one-timer blast with 8:30 left in the second period, put a charge into the crowd and appeared to be enough to get the Elis back on solid ground.

The major penalty and game misconduct ended any chances that Yale might grab the momentum back.

UMD quickly took advantage of the extended power play. Mike Seidel scored just 20 seconds into the major, and a boarding call against Yale 22 seconds after the goal led to Justin Fontaine's 5-on-3 goal to make it a 5-1 lead.

"In hindsight, the game was over then," Allain said. "We don't feel that way in the middle of the game because we're fighting our tails off to the final buzzer. But you look back on it, I think we've got momentum and they take one of our top players out of the game and put us on the penalty kill for five minutes. It's a huge penalty."

Still, Yale showed fight to the final whistle. Power-play goals by Broc Little and Denny Kearney in the third period brought the Elis within 5-3 with 6:55 remaining, but it was too little, too late.

Yale's nine-man senior class finishes as the most successful in program history, winning two ECAC regular-season titles, the first two ECAC tournament titles in program history and an unprecedented three straight trips to the NCAA tournament as well as several other individual and team records.

Yale had made just two NCAA appearances in its history prior to the current run.